Based on a true story, Bradley's (Ruthie's Gift) gripping, high-stakes adventure about a French girl who joins the Resistance during WW II offers insight into a young spy's sacrifices and bravery. When the Germans begin to occupy France, 13-year-old Suzanne, who narrates, focuses more on her dreams of singing professionally than on the war she thinks could never hurt her. She tries to follow her pragmatic father's repeated admonition, "Obey the rules and no one gets hurt." But her views change when a bombing leaves her best friend mute from trauma, German soldiers seize her family's home and she realizes "sometimes people disappeared." Family relationships and the intensely personal price of war prove more strongly sketched than Suzanne's love of music, even though it is the travel occasioned by Suzanne's growing success in the opera that makes her useful to the Resistance. Bradley effectively portrays the initial allure when the family doctor recruits Suzanne, then 16, as "number twenty-two" (names would be too dangerous to use), and then gradually tarnishes that glamour to reveal the heavy burden, isolation and imminent danger. While one or two touches seem forced (particularly when Suzanne is betrayed), the details and the tone have the ring of authenticity. A highly compelling look at the covert battle for freedom. Ages 10-14. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Gr. 6^-12. Teenage Suzanne David is so focused on her dreams of becoming an opera star that she barely notices the growing Nazi presence in her French hometown of Cherbourg, until an air raid in 1940 literally puts the death and devastation at her feet. Her innocent appearance, iron will, and schedule as a singer-performer attract the attention of a local Resistance leader, who recruits her to become a spy and entrusts her to transport encoded Allied messages. Based on interviews with the real Suzanne David (who married an American soldier in 1945 and moved to Tennessee), this taut, engrossing World War II novel instantly immerses readers in the horrors faced by everyday citizens during the Nazi Occupation. The real focus, however, is the skin-crawling suspense story about one of France's youngest spies. Each chapter brings new intrigue and often shocking revelations, made all the more intense by the facts about codes and disguises and the fast-paced, first-person narration. There aren't many accounts for young readers about the French Resistance, and from setup to conclusion, this one resonates with authenticity, excitement, and heart. The teenage hero who must keep her spying a secret, even from her parents, will thrill historical fiction fans. --Roger Leslie

Gr 7-10-Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (Delacorte, 2003) recounts the hardships and the camaraderie of life in Nazi-occupied France. Teen protagonist Suzanne David finds the strength to cope with her best friend's mental breakdown, her own family being forced from their home, and the other deprivations of war as she pursues a career in the opera. She even risks her life to work for the Resistance in her hometown of Cherbourg, and is fortunate to be safe when the Allies invade the nearby beaches at Normandy. Narrator Carine Montbertrand does a nice job of integrating the French words and phrases that add to the recording's authenticity. The case and cassettes are sturdy and well-marked, and the sound quality is good. This recording describes some of war's harsh realities, but it also attests to the courage and sacrifice of ordinary citizens. A useful supplement for school and public library collections where World War II is studied.-Barbara Wysocki, Cora J. Belden Library, Rocky Hill, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(Middle School) Like Kathleen Karr's Gilbert & Sullivan Set Me Free, reviewed below, this novel adds a touch of glamour to the usual homespun goodness of girls' historical fiction. Convent girl and aspiring opera star Suzanne, thirteen, finds her world almost completely changed when the Germans bomb Cherbourg in 1940 and subsequently invade and occupy the city. Her best friend has retreated into hysterical muteness, and soldiers have taken over her family's home. But as she begins her career as a young soprano, Suzanne finds another vocation as well: she becomes a spy for the Resistance, carrying coded messages hidden in her hair (and, later, in a hollowed-out heel). While demonstrating the requisite pluck and resourcefulness, Suzanne is engagingly modest about her espionage activities as the agent code-named ""Twenty-two,"" and the first-person account is lively with details of life under the occupation.Although the climax of the story--Suzanne is betrayed by her hairdresser to the Germans, whose interrogation of her is stopped in the nick of time by D-day--seems pure Hollywood, a brief prefatory note identifies Suzanne as a real person and says, ""This book is written as fiction but tells a true story."" (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Suzanne David's father always said, "Obey the rules and no one gets hurt." But when their French town of Cherbourg is bombed, her neighbor is killed, the Nazis take over, and her family is turned out of their house, whose rules does she obey? When one of the few black families in Cherbourg disappears, Suzanne says to her Papa, "I thought Hitler only hated Jews. I didn't know he hated black people too." "Now you do," he replies. It is this growing awareness, step by step, that leads to Suzanne's involvement in the French Resistance, becoming number 22, and relaying messages essential to the planning of the D-Day invasion. Based on Bradley's interviews with the real Suzanne, this is an exciting account of a girl's coming of age in a scary time. The historical context is neatly woven into the story, so readers will learn about Dunkirk, the fall of Paris, Vichy France, Charles de Gaulle, and D-Day. A terrific companion to Gregory Maguire's The Good Liar, but for an older audience. (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.